We Need To Talk About Arya: 3 Theories Why Arya Stark Is Still Alive

What happened to Arya Stark in Game of Thrones, ? The youngest has been languishing in the torment of the world’s worst internship for a long-ass time, and since denying fans the female Daredevil-Zatoichi hybrid her blindness suggested, we’re anxious to see what she’s truly learned during her arduous time in the House of Black and White.

Quick Arya in Braavos recap: she’s regained her sight, found needle, booked a ship back to Westeros, and been stabbed repeatedly in the gut by the Waif…OR HAS SHE?! If any intro demands grandiose caps and many question marks, this is it.

Check out 3 theories — starting with the least convincing and leading on to the king of theories at No. 3 — as to what really happened with Arya Stark in Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 7.

1. Yup, She Got Totally Stabbed

It could all be as simple as the move we’ve seen before: Character is messed up and left for dead, but recovers to fight another day. The Hound got stabbed to pieces and survived, and although Arya is not the “big fucker” the Hound describes himself as, she certainly matches him in the “tough to kill” stakes. She was caught off guard in her escape plans, and will now somehow heal her wounds and sail away.

There could be another, slightly more complex layer to this theory, involving body armor and packs of fake blood in order to trick The Waif into thinking she’s dead, but this all seems a little basic.

2. Arya And The Waif Are The Same Person

Full-on, next-level Christopher Nolan stuff right here, with one fairly persuasive theory positing that the Waif is only a kind of mystic alter-ego within Arya’s psyche, and one that she must destroy to complete her Faceless Men training to truly become Arya: Warrior Princess.

Xena jokes aside, there is a lot of weight to the Arya-Waif inception theory. For example, Arya and the Waif appear to only be seen by Arya herself and Jaqen. When we see the Waif attacking Arya in the street, all we see is Arya swinging her stick around, seemingly alone. The House of Black and White is a place of magic and mystery, and Arya’s journey has always been, to some extent, about her mental strength in the face of everything that’s happened to her and her family. It’s not so far-fetched that the Waif is the embodiment of all of her self-doubt — everything she needs to let go to become the best, badass assassin Arya Stark she can be.

3. Arya Planned A Major Face/Off Assassination

I don’t know what you guys think, but this is my favorite theory about Arya so far. The theory goes that Arya stole a bag of faces from the House of Black and White, and used them to pull off the assassination of the century. What happened was, the Waif put on Arya’s face to try and lure her out of hiding, booking a ship to attract attention. Arya, wearing a stolen face, sees “herself,” knows it must be the Waif, and stabs her up accordingly.

Watch this scene again, from the booking of the boat to the stabbing and dramatic bridge tumble. THAT IS NOT ARYA STARK.

Look at the way “Arya” moves! The way she walks and talks; the hands behind the back, the arrogant, clipped sentences, the total smugness as she contemplates her cleverness from the bridge — they all scream Waif, not Arya. Where did Arya get all that gold from? Arya has lived more real life than the Waif, and my money would be on Arya outsmarting that smug little prig, not the other way round.

Now Arya has paid the many-faced God a life — he’s never terribly fussy about which life it is, remember — and she can go murder it up in Westeros and gain a 100% completion rate on . Cersei, Melisandre, Ser Ilyn and the are still alive (well, The Mountain is walking, at least) and a girl’s work is not done.

Next week’s Game of Thrones episode is titled “No One,” so we can be pretty confident we’ll see more of Arya, one way or another. See or just check out the promo below.